Rui Carmo
I’ve spent the past couple of days watching the tariffs fracas unfolding, and with China’s fresh hiking of truly “reciprocal” tariffs to 34%, things are not looking good at all–but Apple is in a pretty serious bind here, since there are newscasters projecting their phones might become over 40% more expensive in the US, with Chinese restrictions likely harming their sales in China as well.
Tim Cook’s going to have to pull a pretty stressful balancing act on the tariff high-wire as it stretches taut on both directions…
As much as I strive to avoid doomscrolling, the overall feeling here in Europe is not positive. The circus-like political statements, the lack of basic competence in either SIGINT handling or even basic math (the “reciprocal” values look more and more like they were done either on a napkin or using AI without the benefit of natural intelligence), the loss of confidence in a major power that we used to see as ally and the immediate impact on the economy are a tad overwhelming.
The chorus of informed consent that is surfacing around the real consequences that have yet to come, as depicted in this week’s edition of the Economist (in this and other articles I’ve just started reading) are all things I’m actively trying to both ignore and mitigate–although there is very little I can do regarding the latter.
But with the DOW falling 2.000 points and most tech stocks dipping at least 5%, this is already at least as bad as the economic impact of COVID, with the main difference that this is by design. We’re well into the “chaotic evil” quadrant of economic policy.